Science in the Enlightenment

Science in the Enlightenment was the growth of systematic investigation, public scientific debate, and research institutions across Europe and the Atlantic world, roughly from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.

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Experimental method: A systematic approach that tests explanations through controlled observation and experiment. Experiments became a central way to establish and contest claims about nature.
Scientific Revolution: A period of major change in European natural philosophy and scientific practice, roughly from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. Its mathematical and experimental approaches supplied foundations for later inquiry.
Émilie du Châtelet: A French mathematician and physicist who translated and commented on Newton’s Principia. Her translation helped make Newtonian mechanics accessible to French readers.
Enlightenment chemistry: The eighteenth-century transformation of chemical theory, measurement, and laboratory practice. Chemical research connected experimental methods with manufacturing, medicine, and agriculture.
Enlightenment: An intellectual and cultural movement emphasizing reason, criticism, and reform, especially in eighteenth-century Europe and the Atlantic world. Scientific inquiry became one prominent expression of Enlightenment confidence in reason.
Scientific instrument: A device designed to observe, measure, or manipulate natural phenomena. Improved instruments extended observation beyond ordinary human senses.
Francis Bacon: An English philosopher and statesman who advocated organized empirical investigation of nature. His program of collaborative, useful inquiry influenced later scientific reformers.
Benjamin Franklin: An American printer, writer, and natural philosopher known for experiments on electricity. His electrical research linked colonial American inquiry with transatlantic scientific networks.
Enlightenment medicine: Eighteenth-century efforts to explain disease and improve medical knowledge and practice. Medical reform drew on observation, institutions, and debates over public health.
Enlightenment salon: A gathering, often hosted in a private home, for literary, philosophical, and political discussion. Salons connected scientific discussion with broader debates among intellectuals and patrons.